


Poetry in motion

by KahunaBurger



Series: In Medias Res [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AI Feels, But more in the background, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Civil War Team Iron Man, Comic Book Science, Gen, Meta thinly disguised as plot, R.I.P. JARVIS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22502077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KahunaBurger/pseuds/KahunaBurger
Summary: "Hey, did you ever reinstall JARVIS anywhere?"Lessons on AIs, demonstrations of leadership and a highly belated realization of loss.
Relationships: Friday & Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes & Friday, James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark
Series: In Medias Res [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/629795
Comments: 33
Kudos: 587
Collections: Tony Cinematic Universe One-Shots, Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	Poetry in motion

**Author's Note:**

> See the tag about meta thinly disguised as plot? Yeah, it's REAL thin. This fic is basically three metas wearing a trenchcoat. 
> 
> I am not a computer programmer. If you are, I'm so very sorry for any pain you experience reading my totally blue skied ideas of how programs work. This is Comic Book (Computer) Science.
> 
> For the Tony Stark Bingo square T5, the visual representation of JARVIS' code from Age of Ultron.

Clint let himself slump a little in his armchair while Stark tried to hard sell Barnes on taking a leadership position in the proposed West Coast satellite team. He'd originally walked to the cafeteria with them after the meeting to discuss his own possible role, but now that he was sipping a coffee in one of the comfortable seating nooks, he didn't feel the need to hurry away.

Okay, technically he was part of this discussion too, but after his input of, "Way better you than me, bro, and I'll back you," he'd mostly spaced out, wondering if he would miss the compound. It was a good base, with everyone integrated into their roles, but he figured the new place would get there. New place, new staff, new AI, even and he free associated back and forth from the current compound to the new plans to the months using the Tower as a base back when they'd searched for the Scepter. Huh, speaking of AIs…

"Hey, did you ever reinstall JARVIS anywhere?" Barnes looked kinda annoyed (oops, they were still talking, weren't they) but Stark looked shocked by the question. "I mean, I know his Tower install was destroyed in the Scepter AI's breakout, and from what I remember, all his other active, ya know, hims got damaged blocking nuclear codes or downloaded into Vision, but you had offline backups too, right?"

Now Stark looked sad, and Barnes was somewhere between confused and Winter Murder Glare. Either Clint had actually interrupted him mid sentence or he was seeing the sad look too and feeling protective. "I, uh, just assumed because you had FRIDAY and those others on drives? If you didn't, I mean, damn, I owe you like, half decade belated sympathies and apologies, man, I just assumed-"

"No, it's uh, it's okay, Barton." Tony rubbed the back of his neck and settled his face into a more neutral expression. "It's not an unreasonable assumption, I never really talked about how my AIs work to anyone but Bruce, afterall. They really, well, they can't be backed up the way you mean, because so much of them only exists in their active processing."

Clint wasn't sure exactly what that meant, except that apparently JARVIS (who had been a hell of a guy for an omniscient ceiling butler) was actually… dead, and didn't that throw a lot of past interactions in a whole new light? He had no idea where to go now that he had completely wrecked the conversation, but luckily Barnes stepped up. (See? Totally better at the leader stuff than Clint.)

"Do you think you could explain that to us a little more? Not necessarily now, with the way it's come up," the super soldier shot him a frosty glare even as he subtly slipped his flesh hand under Tony's nervously drumming fingers, "but if I'm gonna be leading a team, I need to know all my assets' strengths and weaknesses."

Stark perked up immediately, probably at the implied acceptance of leadership. "No, it's okay Snowdrop. Hey, Friday, you mind giving the boys a little peep show?" He set his phone on the coffee table and its holographic interface beamed up into the air above it.

"I suppose, Boss, as long as I don't see it showing up on the internet." A layered ball of shifting light appeared, filled out compared to the remains of JARVIS that Tony and Bruce had examined after the breakout of ULTRON, and kelly green instead of gold.

Barnes whistled softly. "You look lovely, Miss Friday."

Clint whispered, "Suck up," but still leaned in to watch the patterns running lightning quick around the outer shell.

"So, the code I personally wrote for Fri is about this…" Stark tweaked something, and most of the ball turned dim so that a solid looking core less than a fourth of the radius was highlighted. "Through a series of partial compiles guided by me and JARVIS, Friday built these core processes and integrated them." The innermost shell lit up, more solid than the others and so near continually lit it hummed more than flickered.

Barnes nodded, obviously enthralled. "This is the point where you could keep her inactive on a drive?"

"I was more 'pre-active,' but yes. Boss is showing my ultrasounds, here."

They all laughed, Tony just a little subdued. "I was still in the building phase of my post invasion freakout at the time and I had suit designs and/or AIs for a half dozen people that I didn't know how to offer. When J- When I lost JARVIS, Friday was the launch ready AI with the skillset best matched to the suit, and she had to grow up fast."

"Did a great job, too," Clint put in, ignoring the mouthed 'suck up' Barnes gave him back.

"But back to the lesson." A few finger movements and a small section of two outer layers lit up and enlarged. They could see the way the lights moved between various points, some in small constantly running nodes, and others branching out linking one node to another in seemingly random paths.

"Now, Friday has access to several databases, and the ability to store and retrieve camera input and logs of various sorts. But that static data isn't really part of her, any more than your datebook is your mind. The real deal is here. Each point is an event, identification or order, held in active memory and linked up in constantly running subroutines." He expanded the section even more and small images popped up on each point he touched.

"This is James Buchanan Barnes, AKA Winter. Not in real time, but recent. One of the first links made to that identity was the fight in Siberia, and for quite a while it was what we'll call the primary association." Clint spared a moment's attention from Der Blinkenlights to check both men's expressions, but Barnes was still interested and Stark was still teaching. "Siberia links to the time trying to reestablish contact after the suit was disabled, and to my medical records afterwards. That links to information on mortality, a subroutine to check my current vitals, a system check of all combat and defensive systems, the locations of all individuals currently on her threat index and resubmissions of various queries on increasing her autonomous firepower."

"So thinking of me makes Friday feel protective and angry."

"And afraid," the AI responded, "But that was only the first association, and if you look at the image, the brightness and speed of the links represents the processing power each commands. Today, these data points of you using feminine honorifics and respectful terms of affection are accessed at almost ten times the frequency of the Siberia loop, and they link to human reactions to artificial intelligence, debates on the definition of personhood and subroutines to ensure your preferred food items are in stock."

Clint couldn't help but grin at evidence that sucking up to their robotic overlord actually worked, and made a mental note to get in on the ground floor with the new facility's AI. But more importantly, "Couldn't that first association form a feedback loop? I mean, assuming Barnes and Cap were on the threat index and they both made you think of Siberia, which made you run those subroutines...?"

Stark nodded. "It's possible, and happened to JARVIS anytime he lost connection to his cameras or his speakers after Stane shut him out of the house systems to try to kill me. He'd run diagnostics on every peripheral over and over, while reinforcing firewalls, requisitioning extra server space and reviewing basically everything bad that had ever happened to me. When I realized what was going on, we worked out some protocols to limit positive feedback cycles and examine associations that we would classify as anxiety. Those were made part of Friday's core processes."

"Could use some of those protocols myself, some days," Barnes mumbled before continuing out loud, "Guess that's why you understood some of my symptoms so well when we first moved in, Miss Friday?"

"Hypervigilance is a bitch, Sarge," she responded in a tone that Clint would have once called artificial, but not any more.

"That's empathy. Holy fuck. PTSD symptoms link to examples of her own potentially damaging subroutines and the protocols that tell her they're unhealthy and she feels empathy for people who are having similar loops." He shook his head in awe, and tried to focus back on the original point of the lesson. "And that has to be done as active processes - RAM as it were - to accomplish this?"

"It's the best way I've ever been able to develop, at least. The bots have an older system that can be backed up, but they don't have anything like the potential of Friday, and correcting prior associations is much harder." Stark smiled a bit, probably thinking of some of DUM-E's well known quirks. "We've experimented with snapshots of the processes to help recover from temporary disruptions in processing power, and I have a project to make an AI 'panic room' on an independently powered drive, that unfortunately keeps getting pushed to the back burner by other issues."

"Push it forward again." Barnes had been staring at the green ball, but shook himself out of it and softened his tone. "I want it for the new compound. If I lost contact with the AI there during an attack, I'd want to know they were okay."

For a second there, Clint thought Tony was going to fling himself at the super soldier and settle a few long standing bets, but in the end he just nodded. "You got it, Snowdrop. Whatever you need for your new command. In fact, if you wanna come down to the lab, you can be there for PLATO's initial compiles."

Barnes looked delighted, and Clint decided to leave them to it. He needed to finish making arrangements for his move, and start deciding what to pack and what to store. And maybe take a moment to remember JARVIS. He just wished he had realized what they lost, all those years ago.

**Author's Note:**

> PLATO was an AI from the comics, who helped out the West Coast Avengers. Though I toyed with the new AI being named Falsworth and modeled after the Howling Commando.
> 
> I'm not totally happy with the ending, but it had to end.
> 
> I honestly get mad when I think about SHIELD screwing with JARVIS just because they are too arrogent to make appointments and like to break and enter to get the conversational upper hand. Fuck 'em.
> 
> Ten points to anyone who can guess who I think Friday was originally designed for in this headcanon.


End file.
